I tried metal detecting with the Minelab Vanquish 360 and couldn't believe what I found

If I had a pound for every person on the beach who has watched me metal detecting and asked if I had seen the BBC show The Detectorists, then I would be on my way to owning a small fortune.

Instead, despite the incredible search functions on the Minelab Vanquish 360, with built in IQ functionality, I have so far just amassed more bottle tops, toy cars and ring pulls than filthy lucre, but the novelty hasn’t worn off yet. For every ten pieces of trash I find, there’s a little gem, and with every beep, dig and search, there’s the hope that this one could be the hidden gold hoard. It’s the hope that keeps you keen, and the wellbeing of being surrounded by countryside and wildlife that keeps me coming back weekend after weekend.

What’s in the box?

You get the new entry level 60 series machine, with a double-D 10 inch coil, arm strap and charging cable.

What does it do?

Calling it entry level does it a real disservice. It comes with Multi IQ frequency levels, taking the guessing game out of frequency changes, and it’s a solid performance on most terrains. I’m told it’s comparable on this front to many more expensive, detailed machines, though I haven’t tried out others.

But in user-friendliness terms it couldn’t be simpler. Take it out the box, build it up, charge it up and off you go.

There are changeable settings for sensitivity (after a while you learn to tune out the lumps of agricultural waste or modern day trash like tin cans) and you can also set it to all metal, beach, or parkland settings, depending on the ground you are covering; most people simply use the initial presets, at least for the first few outings, and they don’t go far wrong.

The detector is fully waterproof, though the jackpoint on the underside of the control box is an obvious weak point if you haven’t closed it yet. This makes it ideal for beach expeditions, river trawling or even boggy fields.

It’s powered by a built in lithium battery that promises to deliver 10 hours of searching – I’ve yet to run it down to even half charge on any single trip, despite some long days out.

How heavy is it?

At just 2.6 lbs this is easy on the arms, and a full day spent swinging the coil over terrain is easily doable – it’s the digging that takes its toll on your back and knees! Like most detectors, it is long though, so I find transporting it to my digs the biggest pain point, especially when carting around spades, finds bags, sand scoops and a packed lunch. I’ve yet to find a way of fitting it securely on the back of my bike, which would be my preferred choice, so most digs involve me taking the car.

How reliable is it?

So far I have tested the Minelab Vanquish 360 on ploughed fields, short stubble, tougher, taller stubble and on beaches. Overall, it is an intuitive machine that’s easy to fall in love with. With good strong pings, and an easy built-in pinpointer to narrow down the field, as well as an easy-to-read display showing the likely metal type and depth, it’s a strong performer.

Not so welcome was the loose bolt joining the coil to the shaft … obviously I hadn’t tightened it hard enough when I built it up, and there’s no nut to hold it in place, and mine fell off in a field somewhere in the Perthshire countryside, rendering my detector unusable till a replacement came out. It’s a real design flaw, though an easy one to fix … I now retighten at the end of every dig, just in case.

Fair play to Minelab, they posted a new one out free of charge on the same day. I have since bought a couple of spares, just in case it becomes a repeat problem.

Any downsides?

Bluetooth is not available for headphones, so you rely on cabled jack-point phones, and you are a better woman than me if you can search, dig, repeat, and not tie yourself in knots in the process. The number of times I have laid the detector down and ripped the cord from my headphones is embarrassingly high.

And if you are not using headphones at all, you need to remember to securely screw in the jack-point cover to stop water ingress.

A carry bag as standard would have been good, but at this price-point you really can’t complain about bang for buck.

Do you need any other kit?

A hand-held pinpointer is a really handy accessory, as thin coins and old metal look surprisingly like earth when buried and are near impossible to see … the pinpointer helps you find the exact spot your metal detector has led you to.

I’ll do another review on the two cheap pinpointers that I had to return for intermittent service, and the one that’s doing me a great turn now.

It’s well worth having a decent shovel … I started out with a folding one, but found it weak, and the hinge often nipped the skin. I’ve since upgraded to one roughly half the size of a garden spade, with a point end and foot plates to give it some welly – it’s been a game-changer.

What have I found so far?

Many, many bottle tops, ring pulls and random, agricultural pieces, toy cars and modern coinage (enough to pay for my parking near the beach!)

However, in a farmer’s field on the outskirts of Stirling, with the statue of William Wallace gazing down on me, I found two 350 year old Scottish Turner coins, one of which was my very first signal and dig of the day. It was so tiny and thin I was amazed to get a solid, repeatable signal, but the 360 delivered. In total that day I spent seven hours detecting in autumn sunshine under glorious blue skies, chatting with fellow detectorists on a charity dig … a little bit of heaven on earth.

On a North Ayrshire beach I also found a silver Pandora ring, which had been eight inches below the surface, with a real bonus of having two dolphins leaping in the water with Arran in the background while I did so.

And on a Fife beach I found an entire motorbike wheel, complete with perished rubber tyre 12 inches down! Much as I like to declutter the beach as I go, that one was left behind and the hole simply filled back in.

Would I recommend the Minelab Vanquish 360? 100 per cent yes. The features versus price ratio is pretty hard to beat, and there are some really good bundled deals or standalone prices available.

The Minelab Vanquish 360 is currently on sale for just £259 on Amazon, and down to £200 on some special deals.

And what other hobby could mean that this time next year I could be a millionaire?